Authority of Harris County operates bus, light rail, bus rapid transit, HOV and HOT lanes, and paratransit services in the city and Harris County at large. METRORail, Houston's light rail system opened in 2004, and today operates three lines across 22.7-miles (36.5 km) of tracks throughout the city. Speech patterns , in English, the prepositions up, down, out, and over are used, by residents of Houston, to refer to traveling to points, within about a radius: north (Conroe), south (Galveston), west (Katy), and east (Baytown and Beaumont). The modifier "way" as in "way out" may be used for more distant points such as Brookshire and Crosby. Author James W. Corder wrote in Yonder: Life on the Far Side of Change that he adhered to the said prepositions no matter how far away a place was. John Nova Lomax of Texas Monthly stated that he typically did not adhere to the prepositions for more distant cities of about , and/or at least about one to two hours driving distance, away, especially in regards to east-west travel (for example to the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans, and San Antonio), while he continued to use the prepositions for further-out places to the north and south (such as Corpus Christi, Dallas, and the Rio Grande Valley). Music Houston has a lively music scene and while it can claim no broad genre as its own, it has been fertile ground for the development of niche styles in American blues and Latin music --- a tradition that continues today with a uniquely distinctive regional style emerging in Houston's rap music community. Classical Houston's reputation as a mature center for classical music is the product of more than a century of dedication and community support. The Houston Symphony (founded in 1913), is the largest and best-known of the city's professional orchestras, but they are hardly the only option. Other significant orchestras include Mercury Houston, Ars Lyrica, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, as well as outstanding academic orchestras at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music and the University of Houston Moores School of Music (home to the 800-seat Moores Opera House). A full season of operas is performed in the downtown Theatre District by Houston Grand Opera, while a smaller community-based opera company (Opera in the Heights) performs in Lambert Hall. Operas are also performed each spring and fall at both the Shepherd